I am currently reading Andrew Dean Swafford's Nature and Grace: A New Approach to Thomistic Ressourcement. I may post a few notes as I read it. It is concerned with the "nature/grace" debate in Roman Catholic circles, especially in the last 70 years or so. In the background of my interest is an attempt to come to terms with current Protestant dalliance with the thought of Thomas Aquinas. More on that anon.

But in the meantime, here is a fascinating quote from Henri de Lubac, from a 1941 "Letter to my Superiors" (can be found in Theology in History, 432-34; quoted in Swafford, 36):

"It is not true, as is sometimes said, that man cannot organize the world without God. What is true is that, without God, he can ultimately only organize it against man. Exclusive humanism is inhuman humanism."

I hope to put pen to paper, and bring John Calvin and de Lubac into conversation. Calvin could say that man is "homo adorans"--worshipping man. That is, man is inherently, unfailingly, by nature religious, a worshipping creature. Thus, for Calvin, man is going to worship. That is simply who he is. As Bob Dylan could say, "it may be the devil, or it may be the Lord, but your gonna serve somebody" (sung with one's best Dylan accent). Calvin and Dylan are certainly correct: We will all "serve"/worship. That is who we are as creatures. I look forward to understanding this fascinating debate of Roman Catholic thought (or in attempting to understand it).

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